‘American Horror Story’ Season 6 Details: 7 Ways The Upcoming Anthology Installment Can Navigate Two Themes

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American Horror Story fans can expect many twists and turns when Season 6 returns in the fall. But for now, we can only speculate based on the tidbits of information revealed by Executive Producer Ryan Murphy.

The show’s creator recently revealed that Season 6 of American Horror Story will revolve around two main themes instead of one. So far loyal viewers have been accustomed to one main theme, usually denoted by the Season’s names, “Murder House,” “Asylum,” “Coven,” “Freak Show” and “Hotel.”

However, incorporating two themes into one season could bring about some interesting changes to the show’s direction. Maybe we’ll see an update in how the Season is named. We may also see many new character perspectives; American Horror Story has already done a good job of bridging the gap between worlds, dimensions, time and points of view, but never as a central theme.

Murphy has also revealed that both themes will incorporate aspects about children or childhood. "If you look at horror tropes, the innocence of children, that story of wide-eyed entryway into some world is always very dramatic and satisfying," he said at the 2016 Paley Festival Monday.

Here are some ideas we have on how of how American Horror Story can navigate two themes in its upcoming season. Keep in mind, these may not be the themes themselves, but rather how the themes pan out on screen. Some speculative themes include Orphanage, Saloon, Zoo, and Boarding School.

Past and Present

Perhaps one storyline could be set in the past and another in the present. This could allow actors to play two sets of characters, or even the same characters in different time periods. Events in the past theme could repeat themselves in the present, and therein lies the horror. This can also mesh well with the incorporation of children into the themes.

Time Travel

Similar to past and present, a time travel aspect could allow characters to physically navigate between the two themes.

Parallel Universe

A parallel universe connection would be interesting because it could allow the same characters to have two unique experiences, all while never knowing there is someone else exactly like them out there somewhere.

Awake and Dream

We imagine an awake and dream sequence could begin as two separate themes, but as the season continues, the dream theme begins bleeding into the awake theme.

Reincarnation

A character could die in one theme and be reborn into the next. Maybe the horror is the character begins to remember his or her former life.

Multiple Personalities

Season 6 could also follow one character who experiences the world through different points of view. The character’s true personality could reside in one theme and then they can dissociate into the next theme as a whole new person, or several people.

Alive and Dead

AHS often has the alive and the dead exist within the same world, but perhaps the two themes can show the living world in juxtaposition to those who have “moved on.”

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